The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-03-19
FEARFUL LOSS OF LIFE IN A BUF-
FALO FIRE.
Seven Certainly Dead Others Perhaps
in the Ruins.
as~assssiy Qsics spsssA Of the Fiamss- The Eis-
vstss ed Great astun1a AID Their Wesh
The houss lust Opened.


Special to the PALArKA NEWS
BUFFALO, N. ", March 1S.-The Rich
mond Hotel fire Of this morning was one
Of the most terrible calamaties which has
befallen Buffalo, and at this hour it
seems evident that ten lives were lost, al
though the search tomorrow of the
ber of victims. The fire spread Sd rapidly
that many guests had no time to save
even their clothes, and most of those who
escaped were half naked. The scenes at
the fire were heartrending, and the score
or more Of half naked, bleeding and
manned people moaned and shrieked
pitifully. Within half an hour the
hotel was mammoth furnace and
the old st. James Hall caught
fire, burning rapidly. There was only
one fire escape ON the hotel and despite
the prompt work of the firemen many of
the saved were forced to leap from the
third and fourth story windows. The
remaining walls are 80 dangerous and
the ruins so hot that no search has yet
been made. A list of the dead is difficult
to obtain, for the register was burned. 1t
Ia certain that seven lives were lost and
four or five of the injured are expected
to die tonight. Ii was $3.50 in the morn
ing when the fire alarm woke the in
mates.
The house contained large number of
guests, and their heart-rending shreiks
could plainly be heard. Though ladders
were raised and as many as possible
saved. a large number of the guests were
unable to effect their escape. BY four
O'Clock. the Richmond Hotel. the st.
James Hall. and the other property i'm
the block were evidently doomed to
speedy destruction. The whole place
burned like a tinder box, the rotunda in
the center of the building acting as a
great funnel As the flames streamed
upwards the guests found themselves
imprisoned by wall of fire. The
screams of the guests could be heard for
blocks. At many of the windows could
b. seen the frightened guests in their
night clothes. calling wildly for help.
were seen by the crowd to fall back into
the flames. One man jumped from the
fifth floor to the roof of two-story
wooden building adjoining. He was Sc
riously injured. The number of persons
injured is not exactly known. Hon. w.
w. Barse, of Olean, was terribly burned
about the hands and wrists.
JUMPING FROM WINDOWS.
The rapidity Of the spread of the
fire cutting off the means of escape, led
some persons to leap for their lives from
their rooms. Others got down the fire
escapes or ON the ladders raised by the
fire department. The shrieks and cries
Of the poor people in the upper stories of
the burning structure We're heart rend-
ing. One man, mad with terror, leaped
from the third-story window and was
picked up from the stone sidewalk on
Main Street mangled corpse. Several
who succeeded in making their escape
were badly injured and burned, and
some of these viii probably die. Others,
more fortunate, escaped with slight in
iuries. There were l25 persons in the
hotel, seventy of whom were transient
guests and boarders and the remainder
porters, bell boys, and the families of the
proprietors and clerks. Twenty-Five of
these were rescued from the windows by
the firemen, and large number made
their escape by other means.
THE NIGHT CLERKS STORY
The cause of the fire is not as Vet
known. William III. Airport. night clerk,
saws: "The fire started in the cloak
room. under the main stairway, at $3.50
O'Clock. There was nobody up but my
self. joe the night porter, and Plummer,
the bell boy. pulled all four of the fire
alarms at the different floors and the
people came flying down stairs in their
night clothes. The fire followed the
stairways and the elevator and inside of
five minutes reached the top floor.
rushed out of doors after doing all 1
could.
The spread of the flames is said to
have been frightful in its rapidity. The
elevator shaft served as q fiue for the
flames and they rushed up it to the top
fioor IN very few minutes. As the
guests were aroused and saw the interior
exit cut OH they turned to- the windows.
They could be seen in their night clothes
standing out clear and vivid before the
lurid back ground of flames. Their
screams were horrible to hear and they
could be heard for blocks.
The flames spread To the southeast
aide of the hotel first. The firemen did
noble work and confined the fire to the
narrow limits of the three buildings
named. Their work of rescue had many
exciting Incidents. The telegraph wires
were, as usual. in the way OF the ladder
brigade and much valuable time was
lost in getting ladders past them.
INSURANCE MEN BURNED.
Among the guests in the hotel were
about twenty insurance agents who had
come here to adjust the losses of the
great fire of Tuesday. which burned ont
Miller. Griener * Co, and damaged the
Coxriey Office. Among them are w. J.
Mckay, Of Niagara Falls; c. w. Dubois
of Syracuse; W. s. Dewey, oi
Rochester who escaped with
bad burns; Rintor Bedwell, Of Pitts